When you have 24 goals and 45 points in 56 games and still
average worse than a minus-1 per game (minus-1.11, in fact), you know you play
on a pretty bad team.That was what Stan
Gilbertson fell into when he was traded with Garnet Bailey from the St. Louis
Blues to the Capitals for Denis Dupere in February 1975.He already had quite a journey through the hockey landscape before
arriving in Washington.He was an
undrafted free agent who bounced around from Boston to Vancouver in the WHL,
back to Boston, loaned to Hershey, claimed by the California Golden Seals in
the intra-league draft of 1971 before he finally appeared in an NHL game with
the Golden Seals in 1971.

Gilbertson spent three years and change with California,
then was traded to St. Louis in November 1974.The following February, he was in Washington, his third club of the
1974-1975 season.On the last leg of
that season – 25 games with the Caps – he managed 11 goals in 25 games, tied
for fifth on the club.He was also a
minus-37 for the least successful team in league history (8-67-5). He did end the season with an exclamation point, scoring four goals in an 8-4 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins in the season finale, becoming the first player in franchise history to score four goals in a game.

The following season was very similar overall.Gilbertson was 13-14-27 in 31 games, those 13
goals once more being tied for fifth on the club.His five power play goals tied for second
with the Caps.However, he was also a
minus-25, too, although that was not close to being worst on the team (he was
17th worst on a team that did not have a player finish as much as
even for the season).

Those 31 games in the 1975-1976 season would be all for
Gilbertson with the Caps.He was traded
to the Pittsburgh Penguins for Harvey Bennett in December.He would play for the Penguins for two
seasons, but his career ended too soon, at the age of 32 when he lost part of
his leg in an automobile accident just before the start of the 1977-1978
season.

Stan Gilbertson might have played for some dismal teams, but
he is 11th all-time in goals per game for the Caps (0.43 per game),
ahead of Alexander Semin and Bobby Carpenter, among others.Caps fans might not have many memories of him,
but he deserves a spot on Team G.

Bengt Gustafsson was one of the early players in the tussle
between the NHL and the rival World Hockey Association in the late 1970s.Drafted by the Capitals in the fourth round
of the 1978 NHL amateur draft out of Farjestads BK Karlstad in Sweden. he
played another season Farjestads before signing as a free agent with the Edmonton
Oilers of the WHA in March 1979.

Gustafsson did not play for the Oilers in the regular season
but did dress for two playoff games in 1979.That would be all for his career in Edmonton, though.The WHA and NHL had agreed in March to merge
the following season, and one of the terms of that deal was that WHA teams
folded into the NHL would lose players to NHL teams that drafted them without
compensation.Gustafsson, a Capitals
draft choice, was headed to Washington.

Gustafsson was an instant contributor for the Caps.In his rookie season he was 22-38-60 in 80
games.It started a string of five
seasons in which he recorded no fewer than 21 goals and no fewer than 55
points.In the last of those seasons he
also received votes for the Selke Trophy as the league’s top defensive
forward.His big moment, though, might
have been in January 1984 in Philadelphia.After Dave Poulin scored to put the Flyers ahead five minutes into the
contest, Gustafsson scored what would be his 18th goal of the season
just 59 seconds later.Five minutes
later, he scored again.After the Caps
took a 3-1 lead into the first intermission on a goal by Dave Christian,
Gustafsson got the hat trick mid-way through the second period.In the third period Doug Jarvis made it 5-1,
then Gustafsson got his fourth and fifth goals of the game (on his fourth and
fifth shots) to close out the scoring in a 7-1 Caps win.It was at the time a team record for goals in
a game (since tied).

In 1985-1986 Gustafsson was on his way to setting career
best marks in goals, assists, and points, when the Caps faced the New York
Islanders on March 28th in the teams’ last meeting of the regular
season at Capital Centre.In that game,
Gustafsson suffered a broken right leg when he was tripped by Islander
defenseman Denis Potvin.His season
ended that night (with a career-best 52 assists and tying his career high of 75
points).He would miss the entire 1986-1987
season as well, skating for Bofors IK in Sweden.

Gustafsson would return to the Caps for the 1987-1988 season
but would last only two more seasons in Washington before returning to Sweden
for good after the 1988-1989 season.In
his nine seasons he finished with 629 regular season games played (currently 12th
in team history), 196 goals (sixth), 359 assists (seventh), 555 points (sixth),
most consecutive games with an assist (nine games, tied with Dave Christian),
second in shorthanded goals (17, tied with Mike Ridley), and had four seasons in
which he received Selke Trophy votes.Gustafsson
recorded only 196 minutes in penalties for his career.He might have been the best two-way center in
team history and thus deserves to center Team G.

In his nine full seasons with the Washington Capitals
(1979-1980 through 1987-1988), only five players scored more goals than Mike
Gartner.The list reads like a who’s who
of goal scorers in the 1980s”

Wayne Gretzky: 583

Mike Bossy: 451

Michel Goulet: 414

Marcel Dionne: 397

Jari Kurri: 397

Mike Gartner: 371

Gartner was another of those players who lived a split
existence between the WHA and NHL.In
May 1978 he was signed as an underage free agent by the Birmingham Bulls of the
WHA, but played for the Cincinnati Stingers in 1978-1979, finishing second to
Wayne Gretzky for rookie of the year.The following summer Gartner would be taken fourth overall by the Caps
in the 1979 NHL entry draft, taken after Rob Ramage, Perry Turnbull, and Mike
Foligno.He made the jump to Washington
the following season, scoring 36 goals as a rookie, tied for sixth among
rookies in the 1979-1980 season.

It says something about Gartner’s consistency as a goal
scorer that despite being one of the leading goal scorers of the era, he led
the Caps in goals only five times in nine full seasons.But Gartner was not merely a prolific goal
scorer.With five seasons of 40 or more
assists, he ranks fourth in team history, and no Capital has more than the nine
seasons Gartner has with 30 or more assists.He is also sixth on the franchise list in shorthanded goals (11) and
holds the team record for shorthanded goals in a season (six in 1986-1987, tied
with Peter Bondra).Garner is otherwise
prominently featured in the Caps’ record book:

Games played: 6th (758)

Goals: 3rd (397)

Even strength goals: 2nd (288)

Power play goals: 3rd (98)

Game-winning goals: 3rd (54)

Most game winning goals (season): T-2nd (11 in
1984-1985)

Points (season): 6th (102 in 1984-1985)

Goals (season): 50 (T-9th, 1984-1985)

Most consecutive games with a point: 1st (17 in
1984-1985)

Most consecutive games with a goal: 1st (9 in
1986-1987)

Hat tricks: T-2nd (13)

Assists: T-2nd (392)

Points: 3rd (789)

Plus-Minus: 12th (plus-60)

What Gartner does not hold, however, is much in the way of
playoff records for the Caps.In fact,
he holds no post-season record for the Caps for a game or a series.Part of that is that Washington won just three
playoff series in six post-seasons in which Gartner appeared with the
Caps.He did lead the Caps in scoring in
four of those post-seasons, but it seemed that much of the playoff failure of
the Caps during that period was laid at his feet.

Whether this was fair or not, the Caps and Gartner parted
ways in March 1989.He was traded to the
Minnesota North Stars with Larry Murphy for Dino Ciccarelli and Bob Rouse.Gartner went on to play nine more seasons in
the NHL for four teams: Minnesota, the New York Rangers, and the Toronto Maple
Leafs before ending his NHL career with the Phoenix Coyotes in 1997-1998.His 708 career goals ranks sixth all time in
the NHL and earned him a spot in the Hockey Hall of Fame.It is more than enough to get the right wing
spot on Team G.

After almost a decade of futility in the early years of
Washington Capitals history, the club eventually forged an identity of being a
tight, hard-working, defense-first sort of club.A lot of that was having tough, sturdy
defensemen who were tough in their own end – Rod Langway, Scott Stevens, Kevin
Hatcher.However, they had their share
of defensemen who could contribute in the offensive end, too – Stevens and
Hatcher, Larry Murphy, Calle Johansson, Sylvain Cote, Al Iafrate.

Except for Johansson, though, all of those defensemen were
North Americans.In 1992, the Caps went
off the board, so to speak.With the 14th
overall pick in the 1992 draft Washington selected a defenseman with Traktor
Chelyabinsk in what was then the Commonwealth of Independent States (what had
largely been the old Soviet Union) – Sergei Gonchar.He would spend another two seasons in Europe
before coming to North America, starting the 1994-1995 season with the Portland
Pirates of the AHL and ending it with the Capitals.

That finish to the 1994-1995 season included playing in all
seven games of the post-season.In his
first playoff game for the Caps – Game 1 of that opening round series against
the Pittsburgh Penguins – Gonchar scored two goals (including what would be the
game-winner) and added an assist in a 5-4 win over the Penguins.The following season, his first full season,
Gonchar finished tied with the New York Rangers’ Brian Leetch for eighth in
goal-scoring among defensemen (15), and only Florida’s Robert Svehla had more
points (57) among defensemen playing in their first full season in the NHL than
Ganchar (41).

The year after that Gonchar missed 25 games, but he still
had 13 goals in 57 games and received a vote for the Norris Trophy as the
league’s top defenseman.After a curious
drop off in offensive production in 1997-1998 (5-16-21 in 72 games), Gonchar
peeled off five consecutive seasons in which he recorded no fewer than 18 goals
and four time recorded more than 50 points.No defenseman over those five seasons (1998-1999 through 2002-3003) had
more goals (102), and only Nicklas Lidstrom (322) and Al MacInnis (269) had
more points than Gonchar (268).He had
established himself as one of the premier offensive defensemen in the league.

As a playoff performer, Gonchar had two distinct stages of
his career with the Caps.In the first,
covering the 1995, 1996, and 1998 playoffs, he was 11-10-21 in 34 games,
including a 7-4-11 scoring line in 21 games of the 1998 playoffs.In his last three playoff appearances (2000,
2001, 2003) Gonchar managed only two goals (ten points) in 17 games.

The 2002-2003 season would be Gonchar’s last full season
with the Caps.When the Caps sank
through the standings in the 2003-2004 season, and the club began selling off
high-priced veterans, Gonchar was traded to Boston for defenseman Shaone Morrisonn,
and a first and second round pick in the 2004 entry draft.That first round pick became defenseman Jeff
Schultz, the trade having the overall effect of replacing the offensive defenseman with a pair of stay at home
types.The second round pick, center
Mikhail Yunkov, never played for Washington.

After leaving Washington, Gonchar moved around, finishing
that 2003-2004 season in Boston, then moving on to Pittsburgh for five seasons,
the Ottawa Senators for another three seasons, and then to the Dallas Stars
where he played last season and with whom he is under contract for the upcoming
season.

No Russian defenseman has played in more career regular
season games than Sergei Gonchar (1,253 and counting).The first half of that career – ten seasons
and 654 games – was played in Washington where Gonchar established himself as
one of the best offensive defensemen of his time.For that, he mans the blue line on Team G.

When the Capitals were selling off their assets in
2003-2004, they sent Robert Lang, the leading scorer in the league at the time,
to the Detroit Red Wings for futures – a prospect (Tomas Fleischmann) and two
draft picks.With one of the picks the Capitals selected a
defenseman with the Saskatoon Blades of the Western Hockey League, a team that
had a record of 7-52-11-2 in his draft season.That defenseman led the team’s blue liners and was second overall in
goal and points (14-25-39 in 59 games).He was Mike Green, taken 29th overall by the Caps in the 2004
entry draft.

While the NHL was busy not playing hockey during the lockout
of 2004-2005, Green wrapped up his career in Saskatoon with the Blades.The following season Green moved up to the
Hershey Bears of the AHL where he was 9-34-43 in 56 games.He also got his first taste of action in the
NHL, getting 22 games with the Caps (1-2-3, minus-8).

After establishing himself in the Caps’ lineup in 2006-2007
(70 games; 2-10-12, minus-10), he found his game in a big way.In 2007-2008 Green went 18-38-56, finishing
first among all NHL defensemen in goals scored and seventh in total
points.It earned him a seventh-place
finish in the Norris Trophy voting.The
following season Green finished 31-42-73 in just 68 games, putting him at the
top of the defenseman rankings in goals and points, his 31 goals including a
streak of eight consecutive games with at least one goal, an NHL record that
still stands.For that Green finished
second in the Norris Trophy voting, 52 votes behind Boston’s Zdeno Chara.In 2009-2010 Green completed an amazing three
year run, going 19-57-76 in 75 games and finishing second in the Norris Trophy
voting once more, this time losing to Chicago’s Duncan Keith.

That three season stretch was among the most dominating for
a defenseman in recent history.Green’s
68 goals were 23 more than second-place Shea Weber’s 45 over the same
period.His 205 points was 27 more than
second-place Nicklas Lidstrom’s 178 points.His 36 power play goals was ten more than Mark Streit in second
place.And, among defensemen playing in
at least 200 games over the period, none had a better shooting percentage (10.0
percent).

Green also had a flair for the dramatic in that three-year
period.Twelve of his 68 goals were
game-winners, four of those coming in overtime, earning him the nickname, “Game
Over Green.”However, it was during that
period that another side of “Game Over Green” began to appear.It started in November 2008 in Anaheim when
Mike Green was checked into the end boards by Chris Pronger early in a 6-4 Caps
win over the Ducks.Green missed 11
games with a shoulder injury on his way to missing 14 games overall in
2008-2009.After playing in 75 games the
following season, the injuries came with alarming frequency.There was an upper body injury that kept him
out for three games early in the 2010-2011 season, then a concussion that put
him on the shelf for the last 20 regular season games.In between he missed ten games for a variety
of reasons.In 2011-2012 he missed six
games in the first month to an ankle injury, and then recurring groin problems
would rob him of another 42 games.The
groin problems would cost him another 13 games of the abbreviated 2012-2013
season.

Those injuries limited Green to just 116 games over three seasons following his
career-best three year run, and his offensive output suffered for it (not to
mention the coaching changes that would alter his game and his role).Over the 2010-2011 through 2012-2013 seasons
Green was just 23-34-57, 12 of those goals and 26 of those points coming in
just 35 games of the 2012-2013 season.His game-winning goals dropped in the process (four over that period,
three in overtime).

As a playoff performer Green has been reasonably productive
(9-24-33, minus-1 in 57 post season games), but his tendency to recover and
carry pucks out of the Caps’ end of the ice has been something opponents have
sought to exploit by punishing him physically.It has made for an inconsistent mix, and the Capitals overall playoff
performance has been a reflection of that (not that Green is the only player
with such a mix in his play).

After submitting to a surgical procedure to address his
groin injury issues, Green rebounded with a 38-point season in 70 games in
2013-2014.Whether or not he will return
to the neighborhood of those career-best years remains to be seen, but Green is
clearly worthy of getting a place on Team G.

The 112th pick in the 2010 NHL entry draft was
well traveled. The pick was the original property of the Phoenix Coyotes.In March 2010 the Coyotes traded that pick, a
seventh round pick in the 2010 draft, and defenseman Matt Jones to the Toronto
Maple Leafs for Lee Stempniak.On the
second day of the 2010 draft the Maple Leafs sent the pick to the Capitals for
Washington’s fourth round (116th overall) and fifth round (146th
overall) draft picks in the 2010 draft.

With that 112th overall pick the Caps took
goaltender Philipp Grubauer of the Windsor Spitfires.Grubauer, a native of Germany, just completed
his first season in Canadian juniors, playing first with the Belleville Bulls,
then with the Spitfires for whom he went 13-1-2, 2.37, .906 with two shutouts
in 19 regular season games and 16-2, 2.69, .905 in 18 post-season games,
including a perfect 4-0 record backstopping the Spitfires to the Memorial Cup.

After another year in Canadian junior (this time with the
Kingston Frontenacs), Grubauer made the leap to professional hockey in
2011-2012, posting a 23-13-5 record (2.22, .918, one shutout) with the South
Carolina Stingrays in the ECHL.In
2012-2013 he shuttled among South Carolina, the Hershey Bears in the AHL, and
the Caps, where he appeared in two games to kick off the NHL portion of his
career.

Grubauer’s career took a leap forward in 2013-2014.Although he would spend most of his season
with the Bears (28 games, 15-13-2, 2.60, .916, three shutouts), Grubauer
appeared in 17 games for the Caps, posting a record of 6-5-5, 2.38, .925.His hot start (5-1-1, 2.18, .937 in eight
appearances to open December) set him up as the number one goaltender while Braden
Holtby struggled, and Michal Neuvirth was nursing a leg injury.However, Grubauer stumbled as time wore on,
going 1-3-4, 2.95, .912 over his next eight appearances.He
was pulled in each of his last two appearances in that stretch before being
reassigned to Hershey on January 20th.

Grubauer made one more appearance, getting the decision in
relief of Braden Holtby in a 6-4 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers on March 5th,
but his overall performance gave indications that he could challenge for the
number one goaltending spot in another year or two.Those flashes of excellence and his potential
get him the call in goal for Team G.

We said at the top that if you liked offense, Team G would
be a team to watch.Think of it – five
skaters who in a combined 2,600 games with the Caps posted 864 goals (an
average of 27 per 82 games per skater) and 2120 points (an average of 73 points
per 82 games per skater).They would be
an exciting group to watch.

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The Washington Capitals enter the 2016-2017 as one of 12 franchises in the NHL never to win a Stanley Cup. Of that group, only the St. Louis Blues (48 seasons), Buffalo Sabres (45 seasons), and Vancouver Canucks (45 seasons) have gone longer never having won a Cup than the Capitals (41 seasons). Six teams came into the league after the Capitals entered the league in 1974-1975 and have won Stanley Cups: Colorado Rockies/New Jersey Devils (1976-1977), Edmonton Oilers (1979-1980), Quebec Nordiques/Colorado Avalanche (1979-1980), Hartford Whalers/Carolina Hurricanes (1979-1980), Tampa Bay Lightning (1992-1993), and the Anaheim Ducks (1993-1994).

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